Jean Baptiste Plauché (28 January 1785 – 2 January 1860) was a

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

soldier and politician. He was

lieutenant governor of Louisiana The lieutenant governor of Louisiana (french: Lieutenant-Gouverneur de la Louisiane) is the second highest state office in Louisiana. The current lieutenant governor is Billy Nungesser, a Republican. The lieutenant governor is also the commiss ...

from 1850 to 1853 under Governor Joseph M. Walker.

Biography

Plauché was born in New Orleans in 1785. His father had emigrated from

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

, France, to Louisiana when he was 25 and established himself in New Orleans, where he earned a reputation as an "honest and industrious man". His mother was a New Orleans native who was educated at the Ursuline Academy. Plauché learned many of the gentlemanly customs of his day from his mother. In the

Battle of New Orleans The Battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815 between the British Army under Major General Sir Edward Pakenham and the United States Army under Brevet Major General Andrew Jackson, roughly 5 miles (8 km) southeast of the Frenc ...

, Major Plauché headed the Bataillon d'Orleans

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

. He had formed the battalion from five uniformed companies and with the assistance of Senator

Edward Livingston Edward Livingston (May 28, 1764May 23, 1836) was an American jurist and statesman. He was an influential figure in the drafting of the Louisiana Civil Code of 1825, a civil code based largely on the Napoleonic Code. Livingston represented both ...

. At the time (December 1814 – January 1815), he was 29 years old. Colonel

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

was so impressed with the performance of the Bataillon d'Orleans and Plauché that he praised them in a letter before he left the city. After Jackson's retirement from public life, he and Plauché kept up a friendly correspondence. Plauché later rose to the rank of brigadier general in the Legion of Louisiana. Plauché was married to Mathilde St. Amand (22 October 1791 – 26 October 1840). They had seven children.

Tributes

Camp Plauché, a troop staging area near

Harahan, Louisiana Harahan is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana and suburb of New Orleans. The city of Harahan is located in Jefferson Parish; its population was 9,116 at the 2020 census. Etymology Harahan was named in honor of James Theodore Harahan, pres ...

, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, was named in his honor.

References

External links

Le Général Jean Baptiste Plauché
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Plauche, Jean Baptiste United States Army generals Politicians from New Orleans 1785 births 1860 deaths Military personnel from New Orleans American people of French descent American military personnel of the War of 1812